"First published by St. Martin's Press 2003. First McClelland & Stewart mass market paperback edition 2004"--Title page verso.

One warm summer day in 1895 Toronto, Dolly Merishaw is found dead on her parlour floor, apparently having hit her head in a drunken fall. But Detective William Murdoch soon finds evidence that she may have been murdered. When he learns of her past as a midwife and abortionist, he is not surprised she's been murdered, because although she kept quiet about her clients, her contempt and greed often left them angry and resentful. But when a young boy is found dead in Dolly's squalid kitchen a week later, Murdoch isn't sure if he's hunting one murderer or two or if other children may be in peril.